Facebook is meant to connect you with the world, but in the corporate arena it’s not the quantity of contacts you have that matters. It’s the quality of those contacts that is essential, and that is what you get when you build your business with LinkedIn, which is basically the professional counterpart of Facebook.

Unfortunately, while most people can easily teach you the mechanics of Facebook, you will find a small number of people able to show you the way of LinkedIn, much less navigate its many helpful features. There’s no denying that LinkedIn has what it takes to improve your business or career. While you may not be able to find a prospective employer on Facebook, you can certainly bet that the country’s majority of managers, executives, headhunters, and recruiters are on LinkedIn.

They are using LinkedIn to look for individuals like you; however, if you want them to find you much easier, then you need to do what you can as well to make your profile “searchable”. In a nutshell, that is exactly what The Power Formula for LinkedIn Success is all about.

There are a lot of things that you’d learn and benefits you’d enjoy once you get your hands on this book.

Are you feeling out of touch with the social media generation?

It’s not about the age, really. Many other factors could have contributed to your inability to adapt to the needs and features of social media, and those same factors may be preventing you from fully understanding just how powerful LinkedIn is. Thankfully, this book works like a very user-friendly and detailed map that will tell you everything you have to do to make a successful crossing from Point A to Point Z.

When it says it’s beginner-friendly, it really is.

Bookstore shelves are cluttered with supposedly beginner-friendly books for you to take full advantage of LinkedIn, but in the end, they are not really what they portrayed themselves to be. They contain relevant and helpful information, yes, but they’re unfortunately written in such a way that you might as well be reading a new form of Arabic and Mandarin.

The Power Formula for LinkedIn Success is different, though. Its author, Wayne Breitbarth, doesn’t make the mistake of assuming that its readers have existing knowledge about LinkedIn. This may be playing it too safe, but it actually works quite well as far as most first-time LinkedIn users are concerned.

You get to understand the fundamentals of LinkedIn, and with that you are able to benefit from having a strong foundation that will allow you to develop more effective strategies for marketing your skills or businesses through the site.

Last but not the least, the best thing about The Power Formula for LinkedIn Success is that it offers practical, easily and immediately applicable advice. You’ll know how to improve your profile page in simple and quick steps, find prospective employers in your field of choice, and learn which features of LinkedIn would best help you with your marketing efforts. And all these are just a few of what you can learn from the book.

Most job seekers are concern that there resume is either too short or too long. I get a lot of questions at my webinars about the perfect length for a resume. The quick answer is that there is no ideal length. Your resume should be as long as necessary to sell yourself to the hiring managers. Instead of focusing on the length of your resume, I would advise you to concentrate on the content of your resume. Below are 8 resume tips about the length and content of your resume.

Tip 1

If you are fresh out of college and trying to find your place in your chosen profession, then you need to keep your resume to one page. Use this one page to highlight your education and any internships you may have been a part of during school.

Tip 2

For the person that has many years of experience especially in middle to upper management you can have a resume as long as you like. But remember people in the position of offering you a job do not have time to read 8 or 9 pages, so try and still keep it reasonable, while still demonstrating what you can offer.

Tip 3

If you decide to go with a longer resume make sure that your most impressive skills and accomplishments appear on the first page. When someone is scanning your resume, they will not dig deeper if the first page does not catch their eye.

Tip 4

When there is a large amount of resumes to go through, the human resources person is not going to read every one. So make sure the most important information is easy to find. Make sure to use bold faced section titles, and proofread everything one or two times to make sure there are no errors. Your resume is most likely only going to be skimmed so you do not want it eliminated because of a typing error.

Tip 5

One of the biggest mistakes people make when they are writing their resume is that they want to include everything. There is a point where what you did 20 years ago may not be that important today. So you should take any old experience off your resume unless it is relevant to the position your are applying.

Tip 6

The newest rend in resume writing is to have the shortest possible resume. This means that information such as hobbies is no longer necessary in order to have a complete resume. Also personal information such as date of birth or marital status are questions that can no longer be asked in an interview.

Tip 7

One of the easiest ways to trim your resume is to shorten job descriptions. Unless you held a very unique position, most potential employers are not interested in everything you did as a manager. Instead replace this information with accomplishments. For example; saved company $200,000 by creating an inventory control procedure.

Tip 8

Think of your resume like every word is not only important, but each extra word costs you money. Take out phrases like, “responsible for,” this will help to shorten what you have.

The recent decision by Yahoo to hire the fresh-faced former Google executive Marissa Mayer as its new CEO has certainly raised a few eyebrows. Expected to be an inspiration to working women everywhere, Mayer is intelligent, accomplished, exudes confidence and style and is now heading up one of the world’s best known internet companies. Talk about living the dream.

However the appointment has been made just months before Mayer is due to give birth to her first child. With Mayer announcing her plans for her maternity leave — it will be “a few weeks long and I’ll work throughout it,” she said — workforce observers the world over dropped their jaws and we are all asking the same question; Babies and a high flying career….can you have it all?

Women first headed out to work in a big way during the man-power shortage of the 1940s. While this trend changed somewhat in the decade that followed with a return to home-based duties and baby-raising, the girl-power movement of the early 1970s saw women flocking back to the workforce to enjoy a rewarding career. Employment and workplace relations legislation has been implemented to keep wages for women and men equal and fair. The need for a woman to have maternity leave has also been legislated for. Thus women can generally rest assured that their job will be waiting for them when they have given birth, recovered and given bub that essential care required in the first few months.

To hear a woman such as Mayer stating that she intends to forgo the full term of her maternity leave and return to her job really highlights the way in which so many working mothers push themselves. At face value it would seem that they do so to keep up with their male counterparts. Sure, it’s a choice that women are free to make. But is it the right thing to do? The answer to this will ultimately be better asked on a case-by-case basis, however overall, most medical professionals recommend a recovery time of at least 6 weeks after the birth. Indeed it takes this long to establish a feeding routine and to ensure that the new mother is getting enough sleep and able to function well upon her routine to the workplace.

It is also important to remember that Marissa Mayer is not your average working woman and is not really a realistic role model for women who are trying to figure out how you can make it to the top and raise a family- within weeks of giving birth! She has at her fingertips both incredible wealth and resources that most women can only ever dream about. A high-tech nursery, around-the-clock babysitters, cooks, cleaners- you name it.

Thus we are not comfortable with anyone holding Marissa Mayer as a benchmark for working mothers. “Having it all” can be an impossible dream for the average working mother so we like to recommend aiming to achieve the balance of family life and a satisfying career. This is as simple as 3 easy points;

looking after yourself-knowing when to take a break

asking for help from family and friends if you find yourself spread too thing

using your legislative and contractual workplace protections to the utmost following the birth of your child.

Since the computer revolution more and more people have started working from home either part-time or even full time. Today millions of people work for companies large and small but do it from home instead of going into an office, and the perks (and problems) of this new way of working present unique challenges and open up interesting opportunities for many.

There are, to be sure, many benefits to working from home, including saving a lot of time that would otherwise be wasted commuting. The cost of gas and car maintenance is another perk that people who work from home receive, as well as the reduction in stress that any commute invariably brings.

People who work from home also face numerous challenges, including concentrating on their work when there’s nobody to supervise them, being distracted by many other non-work tasks and being cut-off from their fellow employees. It takes a dedicated person to be able to successfully work from home, no doubt.

If you work from home or plan to start, here are 5 Tips that may help you to survive the change and flourish in your new work environment.

1) Set aside dedicated hours where you do nothing but your work, no matter what. Whether in the morning or late in the evening have these hours set aside to be ‘work time’ only.

2) Set up a work station that isn’t near the TV. Very important. The TV is the most distracting of all electronic devices.

3) If you have children set ground-rules for when they can and can’t interrupt you. This can be difficult if they’re very young but it’s essential.

4) Set small goals for yourself during the day and meet them. You’ll find that things get done easier and quicker.

5) Advise friends and family that you can’t be distracted when you’re working, and stick to it. If you don’t, they won’t think it’s important and will distract you even worse than the kids.

Working from home can be very rewarding and satisfying but, as with anything in life, there are challenges that must be met and conquered. If you meet these challenges you will find success, keep your boss(es) happy, and be happy too, and anytime you can be happy at work is a good thing.

I had the good fortune of interviewing one of the best technical recruiters in the business. She was instrumental in getting me an interview at my current client. She has been in the technical staffing business for about 5 years. Below are 10 surefire tips to land a job quickly:

1. Work diligently to find a job2. Use job boards to post your resume and search job boards for jobs that fit your skill set3. Be honest about your skill set in your resume4. When interviewing speak slowly and clearly when responding to questions5. It is ok to be honest with the recruiter you are working with.6. Do not accept an offer verbally / written and then decline it several weeks later for another7. Always show up a couple minutes early for an in-person interview8. If you confirm an interview please show up for it. If you cannot make it be sure to cancel9. Always be truthful10. Never burn a bridge and be courteous to those you work for and with

Bonus tip:

If you don’t have an interest in the job and it does not suit you just say so.

The 3 most common mistakes job seekers make:

1. Not being truthful2. Incorrect spelling and grammar mistakes in resumes3. Showing up late or not showing at all for interviews